A Little Big Reveal and a Flub

Wow, this day did not go as planned, my plans got shot to pieces way early this morning.  I started writing this at 7 this morning, and I am just now getting around to finishing it.  Sorry for the delay, but I hope you all will enjoy it!

So, I started this project about 2 months ago.  Here is what it looked like to start.

this is the back

front of tray

I got this for $1 at an auction, the only bummer, it also came with the 16 matching coffee mugs that were sitting on it. I ask you, who needs 16 matching coffee mugs?  I'm still trying to get rid of those at a yard sale. Anyway, I primed the tray, and painted it using acrylic paint.  My friend Jillian at The Virginia House is always using acrylic paint and saying how easy it is.  So, I thought I'd test it out.  It is great!  I love that it comes in small quantities, though in this case, I probably could have used a quart (the flub).  Anyway, I had been looking at different blogs like The Virginia House, and Twig, Mustard Seed Creations, and Lemon Tree Creations and noticed that a lot them were painting things on their own.  Some did it free hand, others with stamps.  However they did it, I kept thinking, I think I can do that.  So I tried.

The Flub

It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but the branches and birds are totally out of proportion for the size of this tray.  Plus, you could see all the brush strokes in the orange (the birds and branches are a cantaloupe color, it doesn't show well here.)  My hubby was very sweet.  He looked at it, and said "well, I like the idea, and for your first time you did a great job,......but......well......."  I agreed with him.  So, it sat on a table for 2 months till I decided what to do.  I sanded the orange off.  I went searching on the 'net again for a picture I thought I could copy onto this tray.  This is what I did:

The finished product

See, much more proportionate!  When I showed this to hubby, he really like it!  The only thing I still have to do is to spray it with lacquer.  Since it rained, I didn't get to do that today.  Hopefully Monday I will have another big reveal for you, that goes along with this tray!   So, the total cost for this tray, $1 for the tray, $6 for the paint, not bad!  I saw similar trays, that were plastic on Target's website, they ran from $15 to $24.99.  I think, that even with the frustration of the flub, I can handle the $7 price tag!  Hope you all have a good weekend!

Melissa

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